NSW Jewish education report suffers from insular focus on Jewish schools

JULIE SZEGO: By conceding that its remit was limited to Jewish schools, the Gonski report has ignored the key question of why more families are turning to public schools for a Jewish education

LAST YEAR INFLUENTIAL FIGURES in Victoria’s Jewish community launched the Jewish Schools Project, a plan to tackle what they say is a looming crisis in Jewish education as day school fees soar and enrolments flatline. The Project kicked off with a discussion paper spelling out the crisis and flagging four possible solutions.

At the time of the paper’s release, I heard rumblings a similar report was underway in NSW where Jewish schools are likewise under existential threat from high fees, demographic trends and assimilation.

The NSW education review was to be steered by businessman David Gonski, whose landmark schools funding report a decade ago ushered in what was touted as a fairer system that would end the nation’s “divisive” debates about educational inequity.

The new report— let’s call it the NSW Jewish community’s Gonski report— was released last week. It is entitled, Survive to thrive: Securing the future of Jewish education in New South Wales. “Jewish education” in this context refers to Jewish day schools, five in particular: Emanuel School, Kesser Torah College, Masada College, Moriah College and Mount Sinai College.

Nearly 43 per cent of Jewish school-aged children in NSW attend Jewish schools, five per cent less than these schools’ full capacity. The report flags half a dozen “big ideas” to help the schools address “enrolment fragility”, including a grants scheme to recruit more kindergarten children.

Basically, the Gonski report reprises the themes explored in the Melbourne paper. This fact alone is both surprising, and disappointing because the Melbourne report caused an unexpected commotion.